Great Valley sent every healthy, available body that could swing a tennis racquet to the 2009 Middle States Sectionals at Mercer County Park, NJ this past weekend - unfortunately, it wasn't enough to advance further as the squad went 1-4 over the long weekend of tennis.
Already stretched thin by injury and location issues (2 of our best players were in Germany and Florida, respectively), the roster took two more hits during the weekend as Tom Mead decided that New Jersey was too far to drive for 8-game pro sets and Kenny's lower body came unhinged during a point in Saturday afternoon's match. With Jim Shinehouse leaving the country after his Sunday morning match, we literally had only 8 players available on our entire roster to take the courts against CPD in the afternoon tilt. A pretty amazing turn of events for the 2-time PATD champs.
Individually, Brett Seigfried had a nice weekend, going 3-2 in singles action. After getting drubbed 8-2 by Delaware (old nemesis Cahn Ho) and Jersey, Brett regrouped and pulled out his next three matches. Our other 4 court wins came from different sources - Rich Trach and I won our only outing together, an 8-2 smashing of our rivals Russell Chamberlin and Ron Rubenstein. I managed one singles win out of 4, an 8-2 victory over Allegheny. Holger and Joe pulled out one of their 5 matches, and Tom Cantu and Jack Legoretta prevailed over their opponents from Eastern PA.
I'll go into all of the gruesome details over the next few weeks, but the upshot I think is this - we really ran into some bad luck with roster availability this time around. Our team as constructed is a great regular season team, because we have a deep roster without any glaring weaknesses. But the top-end talent at this weekend of tennis was just too much for our depleted roster. I personally could have played better, and perhaps some of the other guys could say the same. But realistically, even with our best roster out there, I'm not that sure we get past the New Jersey squad that steamrolled to a 21-4 court record en route to a 5-0 weekend and a trip to Vegas.
So, back to the drawing board. There is absolutely no shame in being the two-time defending PATD 4.0 Champs. Now we wait to see the new ratings come out, try to do a little recruiting, and gear up for another successful campaign. See you in April, boys!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Backs Against the Wall
Just a quick update on the weekend's festivities thus far - GV finds itself up against it after two matches, dropping decisions to Delaware and Jersey for an 0-2 record halfway into Day 2. The schedules have been turned upside down because of the weekend's rain - we know that our next match today is scheduled for 4:30PM, but no word on tomorrow's schedule as of yet. Hopefully the rain will stay away so that Sunday's matches can occur outdoors, but we'll see.
More updates to follow...
More updates to follow...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Rain Rain Go Away!
From Capt. Mike's e-mail tonight:
All matches will be moved indoors and as I suspected 8 game pro sets, 5minute warm up.
Below are the locations of the courts, some pretty far away.
Addresses below for GPS or Mapquest. Will not know who plays where until they make the determination of going indoors.
If Fri is a total wash out they will move Fri PM match to Sunday PM.
Nassau Rac Club
1800 Rte 206
Skillman, NJ 08558
908-359-8730
Hopewell Valley Tennis Club
111 Tittismill Rd
Pennington, NJ 08534
609-737-3600
Pennsbury Rac Club
375 W. Trenton Rd
Morrisville, PA 19067
215-736-1177
Brunswick Hills Rac Club
225 State Rd # 18
East Brunswick, NJ 08016
732-238-1122
Eve Kraft Community Tennis Ctr
92 Washington Rd
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
609-520-0015
Princeton Rac Club
150 Raymond Rd
Princeton, NJ 08550
Let's try to dodge the raindrops and play outside. A true test of tennis skill. 5 matches. Leave it all on the court.
I will be able to post updates Friday and Saturday night, for all of you who read the blog but won't be in Jersey with us. All 3 of you.
11:30 in Mercer County tomorrow. Our first opponents? You may remember Cahn Ho, Russell Chamberlin and the gang from Dover, Delaware. Let's start off on the right foot and take the first step to Vegas, boys!
All matches will be moved indoors and as I suspected 8 game pro sets, 5minute warm up.
Below are the locations of the courts, some pretty far away.
Addresses below for GPS or Mapquest. Will not know who plays where until they make the determination of going indoors.
If Fri is a total wash out they will move Fri PM match to Sunday PM.
Nassau Rac Club
1800 Rte 206
Skillman, NJ 08558
908-359-8730
Hopewell Valley Tennis Club
111 Tittismill Rd
Pennington, NJ 08534
609-737-3600
Pennsbury Rac Club
375 W. Trenton Rd
Morrisville, PA 19067
215-736-1177
Brunswick Hills Rac Club
225 State Rd # 18
East Brunswick, NJ 08016
732-238-1122
Eve Kraft Community Tennis Ctr
92 Washington Rd
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
609-520-0015
Princeton Rac Club
150 Raymond Rd
Princeton, NJ 08550
Let's try to dodge the raindrops and play outside. A true test of tennis skill. 5 matches. Leave it all on the court.
I will be able to post updates Friday and Saturday night, for all of you who read the blog but won't be in Jersey with us. All 3 of you.
11:30 in Mercer County tomorrow. Our first opponents? You may remember Cahn Ho, Russell Chamberlin and the gang from Dover, Delaware. Let's start off on the right foot and take the first step to Vegas, boys!
Sorry So Lazy!
Sorry I didn't get to the match reviews from Districts. I'll still do them, I swear. I need something to do to kill the 8 month off-season... :-)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
District Match #1 Review
PATD 4.0 Men’s Districts Review – Match 1, Great Valley vs. Pirates, 8:30AM Saturday July 18th
It’s never easy to figure out which squad is going to be the “toughest” match-up when it comes to District playoffs. After all, your team has to be pretty good to survive the gauntlet that is the regular season. One thing we did know about the Pirates, however, was that their top 2 singles players were supposed to be so good that their final regular season opponent defaulted the entire match as a team protest against guys that they felt were underrated. Not only did Lakeside default the match, it was a match that could have decided a berth in Districts!
Knowing that, Capt. Mike flip-flopped the lineup a few times, considering the possibility of loading up doubles by teaming Brett and I together…but eventually decided to play things straight up. Things seemed a little dicey – but thanks to fantastic performances by our 3 doubles pairings, Great Valley managed to pull out the win and start the weekend 1-0.
1st Singles – Greg Heck v. Kent Lane, 6-4, 2-6, 0-1
Kent had a phenomenal season in 2009. In his first 3 singles matches, he lost no more than 5 games each match. After a straight set doubles win, he had a couple of 3-set wins where he lost the first set and then won the next two sets pretty easily. Hmmm…overall he was 5-0 in singles, 1-0 in doubles and 1 win by default. I was also riding a perfect season into Districts, albeit mostly in doubles, primarily with Rich Trach. Rich and I went 6-0 – I also added a doubles win with Holger, and 2 singles wins. So either Kent or I were going to taste defeat for the first time on this beautiful July morning.
During the first set, I managed to stay aggressive and take advantage of Kent’s struggling serve. He had trouble finding any consistency, and I felt good about stealing the first. In the second, we played a marathon 5th game at 2-all. I blew several chances to break serve and put myself in position to win the match…and then my game just caved in. Kent started serving better and was pounding his forehand all over the court, keeping me well behind the baseline. I don’t find myself well behind the baseline very often, and I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t put up much of a fight in the tiebreak and left the court with a disappointing loss. Fortunately the rest of the team picked me up…
2nd Singles – Brett Seigfried v. Donald Swantko, 6-7, 2-6
I’m guessing that Donald is the reason that Lakeside chose to default their match with the Pirates to send a message to Sally Baird. Donald played varsity tennis at Millersville University this season as a freshman, and was named All-PSAC by the conference coaches. Interestingly, he was only 1-1 in singles in the 4.0 regular season, with both matches going 3 sets, not including his default win. He also played 4 doubles matches at 4.5, winning 2 and losing 2. He squared off against Brett, who was 8-0 in 4.0 singles play this year between the PATD and CPTD. I was lucky enough to be playing right next to these guys, and they were absolutely blasting the ball back and forth. Donald jumped to an early lead, but Brett fought back to take a lead before they reached the first set tiebreak. Swantko held Brett off, stole the momentum and swiftly took the second set 6-2. Of course, I say swiftly, but my 3-set match was over well before these guys were done…they were playing some long points! Brett’s was the last match complete, and he was so sure that we had lost that he was wishing his opponent good luck at Sectionals. Silly Brett…
1st Doubles – Werkiser/Van Alstine d. Ganley/Grodecki, 6-1, 2-6, 1-0
We flipped our doubles pairings, putting our “weakest” team at 1st and our “best” team at 3rd. Well, the Pirates did the same thing. I didn’t see any of this match (or any of the doubles matches, for that matter) so I’ll tell you about the records, but I don’t have much else to add. Except to note that our boys were down 9-8 in the super-tiebreak…and no matter what happened the rest of the weekend, our fate could have been decided right there – and Kenny and Guy turned it around and took the match.
Jim Ganley plays a lot of USTA league tennis. This tennis season alone, he is 8-2 in Senior Mixed Doubles (one of his losses was to GV team member Tom Mead), 2-0 in Senior 4.0 Doubles (one win by default), 2-3 for the Pirates in 4.0 play, 4-3 in various Mixed Doubles levels, and 5-0 in Tri-Level doubles as a 4.0. Phew. That’s a lot of tennis. I wonder if he goes to practice, too? Notably, only one of his matches came with his partner for this match, a 3-set win back in early May. Wlodzimierz Grodecki is not nearly as prolific – though also a Seniors players, he’s played only 1 seniors doubles match (a loss) to go along with his 4-0 doubles record for the Pirates, one of which was by default. Ganley and Grodecki were unable to best our Super-Seniors, as Kenny improved his 2-1 season record and Guy posted his first victory after 3 season losses. Couldn’t have come at a better time!!!
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun/Virgulti d. Remillard/Siggs, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0
With all of the consternation surrounding our personnel losses (Schmidt, Gionta, Mead, Edson, et al), it was kind of easy to forget that we were adding a huge piece – Joe Virgulti. Talk about your wild cards…Joe had played a grand total of 4 league matches over the past 2 seasons due to injuries. And this year, he and Jim Dare double-bageled two patsies from Healthplex that thought they coming out for a badminton match, and Joe was credited with 2 default victories. That’s it. He was to be paired with Holger Mackenthun for the weekend, and who better to be matched with? All Holger has done all year is win, with about 26 different partners. So what would happen? Well, after figuring each other out for the first set, Joe and Holger got the job done in an easy 3rd set super-tiebreak.
Their opponents – Dan Remillard didn’t play a whole lot this season, going 2-1 in doubles for the 4.0 year, not including the last match default. And he had never played with his partner on this day, Ronald Siggs – Siggs was 3-2 in the 4.0 regular season, with mixed records in other pursuits such as Senior 4.0 Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Senior Mixed Doubles. In the end, Remillard and Siggs we’re enough on this day.
3rd Doubles – Trach/Umbach d. Ryle/Munoz, 6-4, 6-2
What more can you say about these guys? Trach and Umbach reprised their dominant 2008 performance for these District playoffs, and were untouchable once again. Rich Trach has had a phenomenal season – 9-0 in the 4.0 regular season, 3-0 thus far in his 4.0 Senior season…and 3-0 at Districts. Rich, do you remember what it’s like to lose a match? Hopefully, you won’t remember at Princeton…meanwhile, Dave Umbach has only one blemish on his 2009 record, and that was the infamous 1st singles match against 4.0 computer rated wunderkind Cameron O’Donnell of Easy Killer. After winning all 3 of their District matches in the 3rd set super-tiebreak in 2008, Rich and Dave decided to just take care of business in 2 sets this year. Helps keep the blood pressure a little lower, you know?
Their opponents played together all season, to a 4-1 record. Munoz played an additional two matches with Wlodzimierz Grodecki, and won them both. They were clearly outclassed by Rich and Dave, however…but won their other two District matches in straight sets. The lesson – don’t mess with Rich and Dave.
Hopefully, I’ll have the other two match reviews over the next few days. Be patient! It’s four and a half weeks to Princeton!
It’s never easy to figure out which squad is going to be the “toughest” match-up when it comes to District playoffs. After all, your team has to be pretty good to survive the gauntlet that is the regular season. One thing we did know about the Pirates, however, was that their top 2 singles players were supposed to be so good that their final regular season opponent defaulted the entire match as a team protest against guys that they felt were underrated. Not only did Lakeside default the match, it was a match that could have decided a berth in Districts!
Knowing that, Capt. Mike flip-flopped the lineup a few times, considering the possibility of loading up doubles by teaming Brett and I together…but eventually decided to play things straight up. Things seemed a little dicey – but thanks to fantastic performances by our 3 doubles pairings, Great Valley managed to pull out the win and start the weekend 1-0.
1st Singles – Greg Heck v. Kent Lane, 6-4, 2-6, 0-1
Kent had a phenomenal season in 2009. In his first 3 singles matches, he lost no more than 5 games each match. After a straight set doubles win, he had a couple of 3-set wins where he lost the first set and then won the next two sets pretty easily. Hmmm…overall he was 5-0 in singles, 1-0 in doubles and 1 win by default. I was also riding a perfect season into Districts, albeit mostly in doubles, primarily with Rich Trach. Rich and I went 6-0 – I also added a doubles win with Holger, and 2 singles wins. So either Kent or I were going to taste defeat for the first time on this beautiful July morning.
During the first set, I managed to stay aggressive and take advantage of Kent’s struggling serve. He had trouble finding any consistency, and I felt good about stealing the first. In the second, we played a marathon 5th game at 2-all. I blew several chances to break serve and put myself in position to win the match…and then my game just caved in. Kent started serving better and was pounding his forehand all over the court, keeping me well behind the baseline. I don’t find myself well behind the baseline very often, and I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t put up much of a fight in the tiebreak and left the court with a disappointing loss. Fortunately the rest of the team picked me up…
2nd Singles – Brett Seigfried v. Donald Swantko, 6-7, 2-6
I’m guessing that Donald is the reason that Lakeside chose to default their match with the Pirates to send a message to Sally Baird. Donald played varsity tennis at Millersville University this season as a freshman, and was named All-PSAC by the conference coaches. Interestingly, he was only 1-1 in singles in the 4.0 regular season, with both matches going 3 sets, not including his default win. He also played 4 doubles matches at 4.5, winning 2 and losing 2. He squared off against Brett, who was 8-0 in 4.0 singles play this year between the PATD and CPTD. I was lucky enough to be playing right next to these guys, and they were absolutely blasting the ball back and forth. Donald jumped to an early lead, but Brett fought back to take a lead before they reached the first set tiebreak. Swantko held Brett off, stole the momentum and swiftly took the second set 6-2. Of course, I say swiftly, but my 3-set match was over well before these guys were done…they were playing some long points! Brett’s was the last match complete, and he was so sure that we had lost that he was wishing his opponent good luck at Sectionals. Silly Brett…
1st Doubles – Werkiser/Van Alstine d. Ganley/Grodecki, 6-1, 2-6, 1-0
We flipped our doubles pairings, putting our “weakest” team at 1st and our “best” team at 3rd. Well, the Pirates did the same thing. I didn’t see any of this match (or any of the doubles matches, for that matter) so I’ll tell you about the records, but I don’t have much else to add. Except to note that our boys were down 9-8 in the super-tiebreak…and no matter what happened the rest of the weekend, our fate could have been decided right there – and Kenny and Guy turned it around and took the match.
Jim Ganley plays a lot of USTA league tennis. This tennis season alone, he is 8-2 in Senior Mixed Doubles (one of his losses was to GV team member Tom Mead), 2-0 in Senior 4.0 Doubles (one win by default), 2-3 for the Pirates in 4.0 play, 4-3 in various Mixed Doubles levels, and 5-0 in Tri-Level doubles as a 4.0. Phew. That’s a lot of tennis. I wonder if he goes to practice, too? Notably, only one of his matches came with his partner for this match, a 3-set win back in early May. Wlodzimierz Grodecki is not nearly as prolific – though also a Seniors players, he’s played only 1 seniors doubles match (a loss) to go along with his 4-0 doubles record for the Pirates, one of which was by default. Ganley and Grodecki were unable to best our Super-Seniors, as Kenny improved his 2-1 season record and Guy posted his first victory after 3 season losses. Couldn’t have come at a better time!!!
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun/Virgulti d. Remillard/Siggs, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0
With all of the consternation surrounding our personnel losses (Schmidt, Gionta, Mead, Edson, et al), it was kind of easy to forget that we were adding a huge piece – Joe Virgulti. Talk about your wild cards…Joe had played a grand total of 4 league matches over the past 2 seasons due to injuries. And this year, he and Jim Dare double-bageled two patsies from Healthplex that thought they coming out for a badminton match, and Joe was credited with 2 default victories. That’s it. He was to be paired with Holger Mackenthun for the weekend, and who better to be matched with? All Holger has done all year is win, with about 26 different partners. So what would happen? Well, after figuring each other out for the first set, Joe and Holger got the job done in an easy 3rd set super-tiebreak.
Their opponents – Dan Remillard didn’t play a whole lot this season, going 2-1 in doubles for the 4.0 year, not including the last match default. And he had never played with his partner on this day, Ronald Siggs – Siggs was 3-2 in the 4.0 regular season, with mixed records in other pursuits such as Senior 4.0 Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Senior Mixed Doubles. In the end, Remillard and Siggs we’re enough on this day.
3rd Doubles – Trach/Umbach d. Ryle/Munoz, 6-4, 6-2
What more can you say about these guys? Trach and Umbach reprised their dominant 2008 performance for these District playoffs, and were untouchable once again. Rich Trach has had a phenomenal season – 9-0 in the 4.0 regular season, 3-0 thus far in his 4.0 Senior season…and 3-0 at Districts. Rich, do you remember what it’s like to lose a match? Hopefully, you won’t remember at Princeton…meanwhile, Dave Umbach has only one blemish on his 2009 record, and that was the infamous 1st singles match against 4.0 computer rated wunderkind Cameron O’Donnell of Easy Killer. After winning all 3 of their District matches in the 3rd set super-tiebreak in 2008, Rich and Dave decided to just take care of business in 2 sets this year. Helps keep the blood pressure a little lower, you know?
Their opponents played together all season, to a 4-1 record. Munoz played an additional two matches with Wlodzimierz Grodecki, and won them both. They were clearly outclassed by Rich and Dave, however…but won their other two District matches in straight sets. The lesson – don’t mess with Rich and Dave.
Hopefully, I’ll have the other two match reviews over the next few days. Be patient! It’s four and a half weeks to Princeton!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Oops, we did it again!!!
And so the undermanned, overmatched fellas from Great Valley walked into the PATD 4.0 District playoffs this weekend needing some fantastic performances to pull off a fairly miraculous back-to-back area championship...and they got just that. 3 straight 3-2 victories (never in doubt!) mean that we're heading to Princeton for the second consecutive year, a pretty outstanding feat considering all of the key team members that couldn't contribute this weekend (Gionta, Mead, Schmidt, Edson). The effort was anchored by our fabulous doubles pairings - Trach & Umbach went 3-0, as did Mackenthun & Virgulti. Spotted that 2-0 lead in each match, we only needed to squeeze out 1 more court...and squeeze it out we did - once each time. Kenny and Guy pulled out a 3-setter against the Pirates to provide the winning margin, Brett had a walkover against a sacrificial lamb in the Saturday afternoon match while I managed to best Marty Walker in the super-tiebreak for the second consecutive year on Sunday morning, sending us to Princeton once again.
I'll have all of the details (and a picture, perhaps) later in week, but for now - huzzah to the Great Valley 4.0 team! We found a way to get it done! Now we have to send Bobby Fagan to Germany with the following instructions - "Do not return without Michael Schmidt!". Kenny, put in for vacation for the weekend of Aug. 28th - 30th, and Capt. Mike...well, work closely with Holger on all possible lineup variations.
And finally...Russell can't be happy that Brett and I both went 1-2 for the weekend. If we're 4.5's...what on Earth are the guys we were playing???
I'll have all of the details (and a picture, perhaps) later in week, but for now - huzzah to the Great Valley 4.0 team! We found a way to get it done! Now we have to send Bobby Fagan to Germany with the following instructions - "Do not return without Michael Schmidt!". Kenny, put in for vacation for the weekend of Aug. 28th - 30th, and Capt. Mike...well, work closely with Holger on all possible lineup variations.
And finally...Russell can't be happy that Brett and I both went 1-2 for the weekend. If we're 4.5's...what on Earth are the guys we were playing???
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Playoffs???
I know I said I'd possibly do a preview of the teams we're matching up with this weekend...but frankly, I'm on vacation, and that's far too much work. So I'll just quickly remind everyone of the schedule:
8:30 AM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. Pirates @ Council Rock South High School, Holland, PA
4:00 PM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. FCTC - Green @ George School, Newtown, PA
8:30 AM, Sunday - Great Valley vs. Bucks Broncs @ George School, Newtown, PA
I don't know about everyone else, but I can't wait to twiddle my thumbs for 6 hours in between matches on Saturday. Sheesh.
Not much else to talk about. Let's go out there on Saturday and play our best - we're not going to sneak up on anyone this year, so we have to be ready for everyone's best shot.
Playoffs!
8:30 AM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. Pirates @ Council Rock South High School, Holland, PA
4:00 PM, Saturday - Great Valley vs. FCTC - Green @ George School, Newtown, PA
8:30 AM, Sunday - Great Valley vs. Bucks Broncs @ George School, Newtown, PA
I don't know about everyone else, but I can't wait to twiddle my thumbs for 6 hours in between matches on Saturday. Sheesh.
Not much else to talk about. Let's go out there on Saturday and play our best - we're not going to sneak up on anyone this year, so we have to be ready for everyone's best shot.
Playoffs!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
EK Rebuttal
The beauty of this era of information sharing is the ease of getting your story out there for the entire world to see. I’m not suggesting that more than a handful of people read our humble blog, but it’s still technically out there, you know what I mean?
Anyway, I mention this because our chief rival, Easy Killer’s Russell Chamberlin, recently posted a story about our last match from a couple of weeks ago. Before I begin, let me say this – finding Russell’s blog last year provided the inspiration to get this blog started. Actually, it inspired me to suggest to our team captain to start a blog. But he put the responsibility back on me, and frankly I’ve enjoyed it this year. And, after seeing a couple of his “posts”, I’m glad that it’s me doing most of the posting. But that’s another story…
So I just wanted to write an open letter to Russell to address a couple of the…interesting comments that he makes in his final entry for the 2009 season. A link to Russell’s blog is on the right-hand side of the page, under “Relevant Links”, if you’d like to read his post first…
Dear Russell,
Many thanks for your fantastic blog about all things tennis. It has been instrumental in encouraging me to provide a forum to our team, and actually helped me out when I was trying to pick out a new racquet before this season started! That said, I have a few issues with your most recent post titles “EK topples Great Valley 3-2”.
By the way, congrats on that win. You guys played great, and deserved the victory. Let me get right to my first issue with your write-up.
After your description of the first singles match, you write “Why Great Valley filed a grievance after the match against Cam is beyond me. He’s a three year computer rated player. “ Let’s look at the facts of this case:
FACT: It was the final week of the season, and Cameron O’Donnell had not played a single match for Easy Killer all season.
FACT: Cameron has been playing for a 4.5 team during the Spring season, in addition to his play with a 4.0 team in the EPD.
FACT: Cameron is a 19-year old varsity player on the Kutztown U. tennis team.
FACT: Cameron didn’t just beat, but toyed with Dave Umbach, who was undefeated in limited match play coming into the match.
FACT: You told our captain Mike Gionta before the match (with a hint of smugness) that Cameron handles Cahn Ho easily in practice.
FACT: The last guy to handle Cahn Ho easily (Jimmy Riggs of Kinetix) caused the USTA computers to convulse to the point that Jimmy was instantly bumped to the 4.5 level.
And most importantly, the final fact: WE DIDN’T FILE A GRIEVANCE!!! We didn’t know who the kid was, we saw him dismantle a pretty solid 4.0 player, so we (okay, Capt. Mike) sent an e-mail to Sally Baird asking her what the story was.
I mean, look – good for Cameron. The USTA ratings system is suspect at best, and college players who get computer rated while in high school are classic overachievers when it comes to the rating system. Kids are maturing physically while playing more high-level tennis than they’ve ever played – of course the system isn’t going to be able to keep up. But to suggest that we’re out of line to inquire about Cameron’s status? I don’t know – seems a little disingenuous to me. If we rolled out a guy for a critical match against you guys that you had never seen nor heard of, and Mike told you before the match that he smokes Brett Seigfried in practice, you wouldn’t be a little suspicious?
Moving on. In your backhanded compliment to our team, you say “They have a cohesive group of solid players and the requisite ringers to make waves in the post season. Go get ‘em.” Well, we appreciate your positive wishes. I know how hard it is to root for the Cowboys after the Eagles get elimnated from the playoffs. At the same time, I have a pretty serious problem with your use of the word “ringers” here. Maybe where you’re from, you call a guy a ringer and he winks at you, you raise a glass, and everything’s cool. But I’m not gonna lie – I hear “ringer” and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
There are a bunch of definitions for the word ringer on dictionary.com. I’m assuming that you are not referring to some of us as “highly skilled sheep shearers”, so I’m going to guess that the appropriate definition here is “any person or thing that is fraudulent; fake or impostor”. Well, let me tell you something. The USTA rating system may be a little sketchy, but there is NOTHING about this team that is fraudulent. When you make it to Sectionals with your youngest player aged 34 year old, there ain’t no ringers here. Do we have guys who are at the top of this level? No doubt. Do we have some doubles partnerships that play better than the sum of their parts? You’d better believe it. In fact, you more than anyone should appreciate that, as you and Ron Rubenstein being out the best in each other, as do Tom Faith and Eric Markowitz. You can’t tell me that either of those partnerships would be better off playing singles, or matched with different partners.
That leads me to my final issue, which is your fascination with me. You know what you wrote, anyone else who is reading this can go to your blog and see what you said about Rich and myself knocking off Tom McAvoy and Hap in our #1 doubles match. Interestingly, you make the same points that I’m about to feature without knowing it in that paragraph, but I just want to make you aware…
First off, a little background on me. I’m not sure how much you know. I played high school tennis at Methacton, #2 singles as a senior behind a young man named Keith Anderton (currently a USTA 5.0 rated player), who was a perennial threat to go to states. Keith and I teamed up my senior year at district doubles, and came one game from states – we lost a 3rd set tiebreak in the quarters, when a win would have earned an invite to the state tournament. Anyway, I went to school at Boston U – I wasn’t nearly good enough to play tennis there. I took a year off and moved home – that’s when Gionta and Werkhiser got their claws into me. In ’95, we were all on a 4.5 team with some other talented individuals (including 2 that still play for this GV team, Jack Legorreta and and Guy Van Alstine) that made it to Sectionals. We went 0-5 at Sectionals, losing every match by the score of 3-2. What are the odds?
Went back to school – Penn State this time. Guess what? I didn’t play there either. Over the next 10 years, I played on and off, depending on where I was at the time. Won a 4.5 tourney in Connecticut in ’98, dropped off the grid, moved to NC, etc. Picked up many other sports like ice hockey, softball, golf, etc. Somehow, Kenny and Mike tracked me down when I moved back to the area 5 years ago, and here we all are.
What’s the point, you’re asking? Well, it’s taken me a while to round back into match shape. Go to the USTA website, and take a gander at my record in 2007, my first year back into competitive league tennis. Make sure you have a barf bag handy, because it’s ugly. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to play myself back into match condition, thanks to the Monday night league at Kinetix and the USTA league. Playing against guys like Simon Key, Jeremy Schroeder and Sean McElroy (among others) will get you sharper in a hurry. I still don’t play often enough, as I have other interests in addition to a 17-month old son, but my game has improved over the past two years.
Okay, we’re finally getting to the point. In propping up Tom McAvoy as a worthy opponent, you mention that he and Eric Markowitz took out Cooper/Ruhl of the Drunken Fools, your “gold standard” of 4.0 tennis in straight sets. Did you know that Rich Trach and I dropped a set to those guys before finally pulling out the match? You mention that Hap was 11-0 coming into the match. Were any of those wins with Tom McAvoy? No. You know better than anyone the value of playing with a consistent partner. This was Rich and my 6th match together. And you’re surprised that we had an advantage?
And finally, we get to your 30-minute convo with Sean McElroy. Now, this is the epitome of fact bending. Let’s start with Sean making the comment that I “regularly beat him in singles”. I talked with Sean tonight, and he doesn’t remember using those specific words to begin with. We’ve probably played ten times over the past 3 years. If it’s not 5-5, it’s no worse than 6-4 either way. Virtually every match goes 3 sets, and the 3rd set is almost always a tiebreak. It’s actually pretty remarkable. So there’s that.
And then there’s “For those of you who don’t know Sean, he won at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships.” True. Sean is 4.5 rated, and a fixture at the club. He is a tremendous player. But even he would admit that he is a far better doubles player than singles player. And his record at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships? 1 doubles win (in a 3rd set super-tiebreak) and 3 doubles losses. And his only singles match resulted in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat. So let’s move past the “Sean is a 5.0 player” thing, okay? Sean and I actually had a good laugh about the blog post at the club tonight, that he was being quoted as evidence that I am a lock to be bumped next year.
Look, Russell – I’m fully prepared to get moved up a level. But to say that it’s a certainty is just silly. I went 1-4 at sectionals last year. I’m a “benchmark” 4.0 rated player (I’m sure you know what that means far better than I do). But I do enjoy your fixation on me, and am glad to see that I have a fan club…
So there you have it. I’ve gone a little longer than planned, but that’s what a couple of beers will do. I just hope the grammar and spelling aren’t too egregious.
Yours truly,
Greg Heck
Great Valley HS Men’s 4.0 tennis team member
Anyway, I mention this because our chief rival, Easy Killer’s Russell Chamberlin, recently posted a story about our last match from a couple of weeks ago. Before I begin, let me say this – finding Russell’s blog last year provided the inspiration to get this blog started. Actually, it inspired me to suggest to our team captain to start a blog. But he put the responsibility back on me, and frankly I’ve enjoyed it this year. And, after seeing a couple of his “posts”, I’m glad that it’s me doing most of the posting. But that’s another story…
So I just wanted to write an open letter to Russell to address a couple of the…interesting comments that he makes in his final entry for the 2009 season. A link to Russell’s blog is on the right-hand side of the page, under “Relevant Links”, if you’d like to read his post first…
Dear Russell,
Many thanks for your fantastic blog about all things tennis. It has been instrumental in encouraging me to provide a forum to our team, and actually helped me out when I was trying to pick out a new racquet before this season started! That said, I have a few issues with your most recent post titles “EK topples Great Valley 3-2”.
By the way, congrats on that win. You guys played great, and deserved the victory. Let me get right to my first issue with your write-up.
After your description of the first singles match, you write “Why Great Valley filed a grievance after the match against Cam is beyond me. He’s a three year computer rated player. “ Let’s look at the facts of this case:
FACT: It was the final week of the season, and Cameron O’Donnell had not played a single match for Easy Killer all season.
FACT: Cameron has been playing for a 4.5 team during the Spring season, in addition to his play with a 4.0 team in the EPD.
FACT: Cameron is a 19-year old varsity player on the Kutztown U. tennis team.
FACT: Cameron didn’t just beat, but toyed with Dave Umbach, who was undefeated in limited match play coming into the match.
FACT: You told our captain Mike Gionta before the match (with a hint of smugness) that Cameron handles Cahn Ho easily in practice.
FACT: The last guy to handle Cahn Ho easily (Jimmy Riggs of Kinetix) caused the USTA computers to convulse to the point that Jimmy was instantly bumped to the 4.5 level.
And most importantly, the final fact: WE DIDN’T FILE A GRIEVANCE!!! We didn’t know who the kid was, we saw him dismantle a pretty solid 4.0 player, so we (okay, Capt. Mike) sent an e-mail to Sally Baird asking her what the story was.
I mean, look – good for Cameron. The USTA ratings system is suspect at best, and college players who get computer rated while in high school are classic overachievers when it comes to the rating system. Kids are maturing physically while playing more high-level tennis than they’ve ever played – of course the system isn’t going to be able to keep up. But to suggest that we’re out of line to inquire about Cameron’s status? I don’t know – seems a little disingenuous to me. If we rolled out a guy for a critical match against you guys that you had never seen nor heard of, and Mike told you before the match that he smokes Brett Seigfried in practice, you wouldn’t be a little suspicious?
Moving on. In your backhanded compliment to our team, you say “They have a cohesive group of solid players and the requisite ringers to make waves in the post season. Go get ‘em.” Well, we appreciate your positive wishes. I know how hard it is to root for the Cowboys after the Eagles get elimnated from the playoffs. At the same time, I have a pretty serious problem with your use of the word “ringers” here. Maybe where you’re from, you call a guy a ringer and he winks at you, you raise a glass, and everything’s cool. But I’m not gonna lie – I hear “ringer” and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
There are a bunch of definitions for the word ringer on dictionary.com. I’m assuming that you are not referring to some of us as “highly skilled sheep shearers”, so I’m going to guess that the appropriate definition here is “any person or thing that is fraudulent; fake or impostor”. Well, let me tell you something. The USTA rating system may be a little sketchy, but there is NOTHING about this team that is fraudulent. When you make it to Sectionals with your youngest player aged 34 year old, there ain’t no ringers here. Do we have guys who are at the top of this level? No doubt. Do we have some doubles partnerships that play better than the sum of their parts? You’d better believe it. In fact, you more than anyone should appreciate that, as you and Ron Rubenstein being out the best in each other, as do Tom Faith and Eric Markowitz. You can’t tell me that either of those partnerships would be better off playing singles, or matched with different partners.
That leads me to my final issue, which is your fascination with me. You know what you wrote, anyone else who is reading this can go to your blog and see what you said about Rich and myself knocking off Tom McAvoy and Hap in our #1 doubles match. Interestingly, you make the same points that I’m about to feature without knowing it in that paragraph, but I just want to make you aware…
First off, a little background on me. I’m not sure how much you know. I played high school tennis at Methacton, #2 singles as a senior behind a young man named Keith Anderton (currently a USTA 5.0 rated player), who was a perennial threat to go to states. Keith and I teamed up my senior year at district doubles, and came one game from states – we lost a 3rd set tiebreak in the quarters, when a win would have earned an invite to the state tournament. Anyway, I went to school at Boston U – I wasn’t nearly good enough to play tennis there. I took a year off and moved home – that’s when Gionta and Werkhiser got their claws into me. In ’95, we were all on a 4.5 team with some other talented individuals (including 2 that still play for this GV team, Jack Legorreta and and Guy Van Alstine) that made it to Sectionals. We went 0-5 at Sectionals, losing every match by the score of 3-2. What are the odds?
Went back to school – Penn State this time. Guess what? I didn’t play there either. Over the next 10 years, I played on and off, depending on where I was at the time. Won a 4.5 tourney in Connecticut in ’98, dropped off the grid, moved to NC, etc. Picked up many other sports like ice hockey, softball, golf, etc. Somehow, Kenny and Mike tracked me down when I moved back to the area 5 years ago, and here we all are.
What’s the point, you’re asking? Well, it’s taken me a while to round back into match shape. Go to the USTA website, and take a gander at my record in 2007, my first year back into competitive league tennis. Make sure you have a barf bag handy, because it’s ugly. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to play myself back into match condition, thanks to the Monday night league at Kinetix and the USTA league. Playing against guys like Simon Key, Jeremy Schroeder and Sean McElroy (among others) will get you sharper in a hurry. I still don’t play often enough, as I have other interests in addition to a 17-month old son, but my game has improved over the past two years.
Okay, we’re finally getting to the point. In propping up Tom McAvoy as a worthy opponent, you mention that he and Eric Markowitz took out Cooper/Ruhl of the Drunken Fools, your “gold standard” of 4.0 tennis in straight sets. Did you know that Rich Trach and I dropped a set to those guys before finally pulling out the match? You mention that Hap was 11-0 coming into the match. Were any of those wins with Tom McAvoy? No. You know better than anyone the value of playing with a consistent partner. This was Rich and my 6th match together. And you’re surprised that we had an advantage?
And finally, we get to your 30-minute convo with Sean McElroy. Now, this is the epitome of fact bending. Let’s start with Sean making the comment that I “regularly beat him in singles”. I talked with Sean tonight, and he doesn’t remember using those specific words to begin with. We’ve probably played ten times over the past 3 years. If it’s not 5-5, it’s no worse than 6-4 either way. Virtually every match goes 3 sets, and the 3rd set is almost always a tiebreak. It’s actually pretty remarkable. So there’s that.
And then there’s “For those of you who don’t know Sean, he won at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships.” True. Sean is 4.5 rated, and a fixture at the club. He is a tremendous player. But even he would admit that he is a far better doubles player than singles player. And his record at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships? 1 doubles win (in a 3rd set super-tiebreak) and 3 doubles losses. And his only singles match resulted in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat. So let’s move past the “Sean is a 5.0 player” thing, okay? Sean and I actually had a good laugh about the blog post at the club tonight, that he was being quoted as evidence that I am a lock to be bumped next year.
Look, Russell – I’m fully prepared to get moved up a level. But to say that it’s a certainty is just silly. I went 1-4 at sectionals last year. I’m a “benchmark” 4.0 rated player (I’m sure you know what that means far better than I do). But I do enjoy your fixation on me, and am glad to see that I have a fan club…
So there you have it. I’ve gone a little longer than planned, but that’s what a couple of beers will do. I just hope the grammar and spelling aren’t too egregious.
Yours truly,
Greg Heck
Great Valley HS Men’s 4.0 tennis team member
Moving On!
Just a quick blurb about our flight-clinching win over the West Chester Aces last week…not really much to tell, really. We came, we saw, we…uh…took care of business. Straight set wins out of #2 singles (Michael Schmidt over Jakub Avramov), #1 doubles (Heck/Trach over the European duo of Lonsdale/Hebenton) and #2 doubles (Mackenthun and his 25th partner of the season, Umbach over Dharmaraj/Delucia). #3 doubles was a default, and Brett Siegfried “retired” from his match, as he wasn’t scheduled to resume until Friday, by which time the match was decided.
We toasted Michael Schmidt’s return to Deutschland at MacKenzie’s on Route 30. A good time was had by all, especially myself and Dave Umbach, who tried to uphold the team’s honor by bringing home the Music Trivia crown for this particular Wednesday night. We failed. But we did get the attention of a particularly lovely 20-something and her boyfriend, who threw in the towel once we identified Spandau Ballet’s classic hit “True”.
Anyway, Council Rock High School, here we come. The District playoff schedule was released, and we have matches on Saturday July 18th at 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM, followed by the grand finale on Sunday at 8:30 AM. Not the ideal schedule for yours truly, but several of our team members have Sunday afternoon commitments, so it works out well for them. I’m going to try to post previews of our three opponents over the next week or so…but I’m not making any guarantees. The previews will be purely based on the information available to me on the USTA website…so nothing like “Smith favors his forehand” or any of the crap that Capt. Mike likes to tell you three minutes before your match starts. What the hell, I guess he has to feel like he’s involved somehow, right? He sure as hell hasn’t been playing any tennis lately… :-)
We toasted Michael Schmidt’s return to Deutschland at MacKenzie’s on Route 30. A good time was had by all, especially myself and Dave Umbach, who tried to uphold the team’s honor by bringing home the Music Trivia crown for this particular Wednesday night. We failed. But we did get the attention of a particularly lovely 20-something and her boyfriend, who threw in the towel once we identified Spandau Ballet’s classic hit “True”.
Anyway, Council Rock High School, here we come. The District playoff schedule was released, and we have matches on Saturday July 18th at 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM, followed by the grand finale on Sunday at 8:30 AM. Not the ideal schedule for yours truly, but several of our team members have Sunday afternoon commitments, so it works out well for them. I’m going to try to post previews of our three opponents over the next week or so…but I’m not making any guarantees. The previews will be purely based on the information available to me on the USTA website…so nothing like “Smith favors his forehand” or any of the crap that Capt. Mike likes to tell you three minutes before your match starts. What the hell, I guess he has to feel like he’s involved somehow, right? He sure as hell hasn’t been playing any tennis lately… :-)
Monday, June 29, 2009
Destiny Interrupted
WEST CHESTER RUSTIN – Saturday June 27th – With the beautiful West Chester Rustin High School as a backdrop, GV faced Easy Killer on Saturday with a chance to wrap up the 4.0 Men Red Division and punch our second straight ticket to the PATD District Playoffs. We figured Russell Chamberlin would pull out all of the stops in an effort to close within one match and force us to make up our match with the West Chester Aces to earn our Division Championship…and we were right. Starring at 1st singles was a 19-year old player on the Kutztown University tennis team that hadn’t played a single match for Easy Killer all season. Sure. It’s only Week 10…
Apparently, Cameron O’Donnell beats Cahn Ho soundly at practice. Russell seemed pretty proud of himself telling Captain Mike that news before the match started. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Bottom line – Easy Killer was just too much for us on this day. Luckily, we had a little margin for error, and now we have to beat the West Chester Aces on Wednesday to finish the job and move on to the playoffs.
1st Singles – Dave Umbach (2-1 singles, 1-0 doubles) v. Cameron O’Donnell (4-1 singles), 2-6, 4-6. While this was O’Donnell’s first match with Easy Killer this season, he’s played plenty of USTA Summer Tennis. He’s 3-1 at 4.0 singles in the EPTD, with his only loss coming after losing a 2nd set tiebreak and the 3rd set super-tiebreak. He has also been playing 4.5 tennis in the Philly Region, with a 1-4 record (0-1 singles). So, it’s not like he appeared out of nowhere. But it sure was handy that he showed up for this crucial match. Dave Umbach pulled out all of his tricks to get the 19-year old off his game, but O’Donnell was just too crisp for our Warpainted warrior, and knocked Umbach off in straight sets.
2nd Singles – Brett Siegfried (8-0 singles) d. Cahn Ho (6-2 singles, 1-2 doubles), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. As soon as I heard this matchup set up for Court 2, I wished I could just watch instead of being troubled with my own match. This was a true battle of 4.0 singles titans. Cahn has ripped through the PATD 4.0 singles scene again, losing only to Jimmy Riggs in Week 1 because of an injury suffered mid-match (plus, Riggs was DQ’ed and bumped to 4.5 soon thereafter). His only other singles loss came in a 3 setter in the Delaware District. Meanwhile, Brett’s success has been well-documented here – he has dropped only one set this year (to Tom McAvoy), though his matches have been far closer in score than Cahn’s. Brett got off to a nice start in this match, taking the attack to Cahn before dropping the second set in convincing fashion. As the third set unfolded, there was a chance that this court would decide the overall match and it was clearly nip-and-tuck. Before it was over, unfortunately, we dropped our third court and Brett’s amazing third set tiebreak win became anti-climactic. That said, it was an amazing, gutty performance by Brett on a hot day, and should serve him well in tough matches to come.
1st Doubles – Trach (9-0 doubles)/Heck (2-0 singles, 6-0 doubles) d. Phouthavongsa (11-1 doubles)/McAvoy (0-1 singles, 2-1 doubles), 6-2, 7-5. It seems that most members of Easy Killer play a lot of tennis in a lot of different districts. Hap Phouthavongsa had put up a perfect 11-0 doubles record this year in his play for Easy Killer, the Delaware District and the New Jersey District. Tom McAvoy is the huge-serving tower of power that took a set off of Brett Siegfried in singles action 5 weeks back. And Rich Trach and I flat out smoked them. This was the 5th time Rich and I joined forces this year, and frankly, we haven’t played any better than this. We made very few errors, took advantage of almost every offensive opportunity, and I even served well enough (though I was broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the second) to not embarrass myself. A well-rounded, fairly dominant win over a very good opponent. I would love to be able to continue playing with Rich through the playoffs, but I have a feeling that Mike Schmidt’s return to Germany may not allow that to happen.
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun (6-1 doubles)/Schmidt (3-1 singles, 1-1 doubles) v. Markowitz (6-0 doubles)/Faith (0-1 singles, 5-0 doubles), 6-7, 4-6. This turned out to be the pivotal match. The Germans had teamed up a few weeks ago to knock off the youngsters from the Drunken Fools, and we needed them to bring down the undefeated duo of Markowitz and Faith to pull out the match. Unfortunately, Markowitz and Faith’s record is far from a mirage – they are a very tough doubles team, and they used the momentum from the first set tiebreak win to jump out to a 4-1 second set lead before holding on for the 6-4 second set win. This was Holger’s first setback of the season – he’s having an amazing year.
3rd Doubles – Werkiser (2-1 doubles)/Van Alstine (0-3 doubles) v. Chamberlin (11-3 doubles)/Rubenstein (8-2 doubles), 2-6, 6-2, 4-6. It’s not often that you’re going to see two players who are eligible for Super Seniors play hang with one of the toughest doubles teams in the district. Russell and Ron play together in multiple districts, and they win a lot more than they lose. Rich Trach and I managed to hold them off in Week 5, but they are an awfully tough out. And here we were, on serve in the third set with Kenny and Guy having a chance to absolutely steal this court and with it, the match. Alas, it was not to be. Ron and Russell made a few too many shots down the stretch, and our boys couldn’t quite pull it out. A truly valiant effort though, and Kenny and Guy deserve huge props for an outstanding try.
So it all comes down to this. Russell is probably doing his best to stack the West Chester Aces’ roster as you read this. Brett’s court was the only one that was underway when this match was suspended, and he can’t play on Wednesday, so we may not even have resolution by Wednesday night. But, we can take care of that by winning all of the courts that we can get in after work on Wednesday, and make Brett’s court irrelevant.
I don’t think anyone wants to toast Mike Schmidt’s departure without the Division title in hand. So let’s take care of business on Wednesday and move on to Districts!
Apparently, Cameron O’Donnell beats Cahn Ho soundly at practice. Russell seemed pretty proud of himself telling Captain Mike that news before the match started. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Bottom line – Easy Killer was just too much for us on this day. Luckily, we had a little margin for error, and now we have to beat the West Chester Aces on Wednesday to finish the job and move on to the playoffs.
1st Singles – Dave Umbach (2-1 singles, 1-0 doubles) v. Cameron O’Donnell (4-1 singles), 2-6, 4-6. While this was O’Donnell’s first match with Easy Killer this season, he’s played plenty of USTA Summer Tennis. He’s 3-1 at 4.0 singles in the EPTD, with his only loss coming after losing a 2nd set tiebreak and the 3rd set super-tiebreak. He has also been playing 4.5 tennis in the Philly Region, with a 1-4 record (0-1 singles). So, it’s not like he appeared out of nowhere. But it sure was handy that he showed up for this crucial match. Dave Umbach pulled out all of his tricks to get the 19-year old off his game, but O’Donnell was just too crisp for our Warpainted warrior, and knocked Umbach off in straight sets.
2nd Singles – Brett Siegfried (8-0 singles) d. Cahn Ho (6-2 singles, 1-2 doubles), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. As soon as I heard this matchup set up for Court 2, I wished I could just watch instead of being troubled with my own match. This was a true battle of 4.0 singles titans. Cahn has ripped through the PATD 4.0 singles scene again, losing only to Jimmy Riggs in Week 1 because of an injury suffered mid-match (plus, Riggs was DQ’ed and bumped to 4.5 soon thereafter). His only other singles loss came in a 3 setter in the Delaware District. Meanwhile, Brett’s success has been well-documented here – he has dropped only one set this year (to Tom McAvoy), though his matches have been far closer in score than Cahn’s. Brett got off to a nice start in this match, taking the attack to Cahn before dropping the second set in convincing fashion. As the third set unfolded, there was a chance that this court would decide the overall match and it was clearly nip-and-tuck. Before it was over, unfortunately, we dropped our third court and Brett’s amazing third set tiebreak win became anti-climactic. That said, it was an amazing, gutty performance by Brett on a hot day, and should serve him well in tough matches to come.
1st Doubles – Trach (9-0 doubles)/Heck (2-0 singles, 6-0 doubles) d. Phouthavongsa (11-1 doubles)/McAvoy (0-1 singles, 2-1 doubles), 6-2, 7-5. It seems that most members of Easy Killer play a lot of tennis in a lot of different districts. Hap Phouthavongsa had put up a perfect 11-0 doubles record this year in his play for Easy Killer, the Delaware District and the New Jersey District. Tom McAvoy is the huge-serving tower of power that took a set off of Brett Siegfried in singles action 5 weeks back. And Rich Trach and I flat out smoked them. This was the 5th time Rich and I joined forces this year, and frankly, we haven’t played any better than this. We made very few errors, took advantage of almost every offensive opportunity, and I even served well enough (though I was broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the second) to not embarrass myself. A well-rounded, fairly dominant win over a very good opponent. I would love to be able to continue playing with Rich through the playoffs, but I have a feeling that Mike Schmidt’s return to Germany may not allow that to happen.
2nd Doubles – Mackenthun (6-1 doubles)/Schmidt (3-1 singles, 1-1 doubles) v. Markowitz (6-0 doubles)/Faith (0-1 singles, 5-0 doubles), 6-7, 4-6. This turned out to be the pivotal match. The Germans had teamed up a few weeks ago to knock off the youngsters from the Drunken Fools, and we needed them to bring down the undefeated duo of Markowitz and Faith to pull out the match. Unfortunately, Markowitz and Faith’s record is far from a mirage – they are a very tough doubles team, and they used the momentum from the first set tiebreak win to jump out to a 4-1 second set lead before holding on for the 6-4 second set win. This was Holger’s first setback of the season – he’s having an amazing year.
3rd Doubles – Werkiser (2-1 doubles)/Van Alstine (0-3 doubles) v. Chamberlin (11-3 doubles)/Rubenstein (8-2 doubles), 2-6, 6-2, 4-6. It’s not often that you’re going to see two players who are eligible for Super Seniors play hang with one of the toughest doubles teams in the district. Russell and Ron play together in multiple districts, and they win a lot more than they lose. Rich Trach and I managed to hold them off in Week 5, but they are an awfully tough out. And here we were, on serve in the third set with Kenny and Guy having a chance to absolutely steal this court and with it, the match. Alas, it was not to be. Ron and Russell made a few too many shots down the stretch, and our boys couldn’t quite pull it out. A truly valiant effort though, and Kenny and Guy deserve huge props for an outstanding try.
So it all comes down to this. Russell is probably doing his best to stack the West Chester Aces’ roster as you read this. Brett’s court was the only one that was underway when this match was suspended, and he can’t play on Wednesday, so we may not even have resolution by Wednesday night. But, we can take care of that by winning all of the courts that we can get in after work on Wednesday, and make Brett’s court irrelevant.
I don’t think anyone wants to toast Mike Schmidt’s departure without the Division title in hand. So let’s take care of business on Wednesday and move on to Districts!
Cardiac Kids
(one week late!)
KINETIX SPORTS CLUB – Saturday June 20th – Great Valley needed to keep winning to keep their lead over Easy Killer at two games coming into their Week 9 matchup with Kinetix. Kinetix had dropped two out of their last three, with the lone win being a 4-1 romp over Healthplex. They did take 2 courts from Easy Killer in Week 6, and knocked off the West Chester Aces in Week 5, so they could not be overlooked. Let’s get to the match review.
Right off the bat, GV benefitted from a big break, as one of the courts was a forfeit win due to a late cancellation by a Kinetix player. All GV needed to do was pick up a split of the remaining 4 courts.
1st Singles – Michael Schmidt (3-1 singles, 1-0 doubles) d. Kali Woodward (0-1 singles), 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. This lively match took place on the far court at Kinetix, court #4. Watching Kali warm up, to say that he looked “casual” out there would be an understatement. And watching the match was no different…Woodward just kind of loped around the court, and then unleashed crackling groundstrokes into the corners of the court like they were nobody’s business. Mike Schmidt was clearly rattled in the early going, but regained his composure and outlasted the former teaching pro. Those of us in the peanut gallery were VERY concerned about this match, as it could’ve been the deciding tilt. No worries, though!
2nd Singles – Greg Heck (2-0 singles, 5-0 doubles) d. Jim Vesci Jr. (0-2 singles, 1-3 doubles), 6-1, 6-1. I had played Jim in doubles a few weeks back, and knew what he brought to the table – solid serves, erratic but powerful groundstrokes, decent net game. And, of course, a striking resemblance to Vince Vaughn with his hat on. During warm-ups, he was hitting the ball very well. Once the match started and he missed a few gimmes set up by his big serve, his strokes deserted him. He got very tentative and that led to a quick match. Jim told me during one of the changeovers that he is completely revamping his game through lessons – I give him a lot of credit. I can’t imagine rebuilding things at this point in my tennis career. But on this week, it didn’t help him much.
1st Doubles – Trach (8-0 doubles)/Mackenthun (6-0 doubles) d. Jamieson (3-4 doubles)/Flippen (2-3 doubles), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Larry “Foot Fault” Jamieson and Tom Flippen gave our doubles specialists Trach and Mackenthun all they could handle on Court 1, but in the end our guys fought them off and managed to secure the victory. We watched Jamieson bombing serves from the peanut gallery, and let me tell you – serving is MUCH easier when you’re 6 foot plus and stepping 5 feet into the court before unleashing those rockets. If he ever makes it to Sectionals, I sure hope he doesn’t run into any 75-year old female referees with nothing better to do than spot foot faults from three courts away. But I digress…
2nd Doubles – Mead (3-1 doubles)/Dare (1-4 doubles) v. Keefrider (1-0 singles, 1-3 doubles)/Pillutla (3-3 doubles), 3-6, 3-6. Tom and Jimmy never really got in synch in this match on Court 2. Tom and Holger knocked off the same opponents in Week 4, but Keefrider and Pillutla had command of this one from the get-go. Jim Dare’s had a tough year – in watching this match, he would make several solid shots in a row, be in the right position, and then dump one into the net once our guys got the advantage. Seems like he’s just a small adjustment away from winning some big matches.
And that’s it. 3rd Doubles was a forfeit. We go into the big match against Easy Killer with a chance to put them away and not have to worry about a make-up match with the West Chester Aces. If we can’t close them out? Well, we still control our own destiny. But things get a little dicier…
KINETIX SPORTS CLUB – Saturday June 20th – Great Valley needed to keep winning to keep their lead over Easy Killer at two games coming into their Week 9 matchup with Kinetix. Kinetix had dropped two out of their last three, with the lone win being a 4-1 romp over Healthplex. They did take 2 courts from Easy Killer in Week 6, and knocked off the West Chester Aces in Week 5, so they could not be overlooked. Let’s get to the match review.
Right off the bat, GV benefitted from a big break, as one of the courts was a forfeit win due to a late cancellation by a Kinetix player. All GV needed to do was pick up a split of the remaining 4 courts.
1st Singles – Michael Schmidt (3-1 singles, 1-0 doubles) d. Kali Woodward (0-1 singles), 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. This lively match took place on the far court at Kinetix, court #4. Watching Kali warm up, to say that he looked “casual” out there would be an understatement. And watching the match was no different…Woodward just kind of loped around the court, and then unleashed crackling groundstrokes into the corners of the court like they were nobody’s business. Mike Schmidt was clearly rattled in the early going, but regained his composure and outlasted the former teaching pro. Those of us in the peanut gallery were VERY concerned about this match, as it could’ve been the deciding tilt. No worries, though!
2nd Singles – Greg Heck (2-0 singles, 5-0 doubles) d. Jim Vesci Jr. (0-2 singles, 1-3 doubles), 6-1, 6-1. I had played Jim in doubles a few weeks back, and knew what he brought to the table – solid serves, erratic but powerful groundstrokes, decent net game. And, of course, a striking resemblance to Vince Vaughn with his hat on. During warm-ups, he was hitting the ball very well. Once the match started and he missed a few gimmes set up by his big serve, his strokes deserted him. He got very tentative and that led to a quick match. Jim told me during one of the changeovers that he is completely revamping his game through lessons – I give him a lot of credit. I can’t imagine rebuilding things at this point in my tennis career. But on this week, it didn’t help him much.
1st Doubles – Trach (8-0 doubles)/Mackenthun (6-0 doubles) d. Jamieson (3-4 doubles)/Flippen (2-3 doubles), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Larry “Foot Fault” Jamieson and Tom Flippen gave our doubles specialists Trach and Mackenthun all they could handle on Court 1, but in the end our guys fought them off and managed to secure the victory. We watched Jamieson bombing serves from the peanut gallery, and let me tell you – serving is MUCH easier when you’re 6 foot plus and stepping 5 feet into the court before unleashing those rockets. If he ever makes it to Sectionals, I sure hope he doesn’t run into any 75-year old female referees with nothing better to do than spot foot faults from three courts away. But I digress…
2nd Doubles – Mead (3-1 doubles)/Dare (1-4 doubles) v. Keefrider (1-0 singles, 1-3 doubles)/Pillutla (3-3 doubles), 3-6, 3-6. Tom and Jimmy never really got in synch in this match on Court 2. Tom and Holger knocked off the same opponents in Week 4, but Keefrider and Pillutla had command of this one from the get-go. Jim Dare’s had a tough year – in watching this match, he would make several solid shots in a row, be in the right position, and then dump one into the net once our guys got the advantage. Seems like he’s just a small adjustment away from winning some big matches.
And that’s it. 3rd Doubles was a forfeit. We go into the big match against Easy Killer with a chance to put them away and not have to worry about a make-up match with the West Chester Aces. If we can’t close them out? Well, we still control our own destiny. But things get a little dicier…
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Cruisin'
Wanted to post something about last week's match...even though I wasn't there, and we played league doormat Healthplex. First, I have a question that perhaps someone who was there could answer - if you are only going to have 6 guys show up AT A HOME MATCH, why would you default both singles matches and only play doubles? Wouldn't you default one doubles match and give yourselves a chance? Were none of their players fit to play singles? Ah well...
Anyway, GV prevailed this week 4-1 - both singles matches won by default, we went 2-1 in doubles. Rich Trach and Dave Umbach re-acquainted themselves on the tennis court with a straight set victory, while Jimmy Dare and Joe Virgulti made great smiles happen (TM) with a double bagel win. Jim Shinehouse (is it just me, or do we have a ton of guys named "Jim" on our team?) and Jack (not Jim) Legoretta fell in straight sets at first doubles.
And there you have it. That's all I know. I don't even know if it was sauna-like in the Healthplex. I don't know if Dave U. wore the warpaint indoors. I feel so out of the loop.
Our magic number for districts is 2, as apparently Easy Killer needed a 3rd set tiebreak win to pull out a 3-2 result over the West Chester Aces. We face Kinetix this weekend, needing a win to get one step closer to putting this thing away. So, let's take care of that, okay?
Anyway, GV prevailed this week 4-1 - both singles matches won by default, we went 2-1 in doubles. Rich Trach and Dave Umbach re-acquainted themselves on the tennis court with a straight set victory, while Jimmy Dare and Joe Virgulti made great smiles happen (TM) with a double bagel win. Jim Shinehouse (is it just me, or do we have a ton of guys named "Jim" on our team?) and Jack (not Jim) Legoretta fell in straight sets at first doubles.
And there you have it. That's all I know. I don't even know if it was sauna-like in the Healthplex. I don't know if Dave U. wore the warpaint indoors. I feel so out of the loop.
Our magic number for districts is 2, as apparently Easy Killer needed a 3rd set tiebreak win to pull out a 3-2 result over the West Chester Aces. We face Kinetix this weekend, needing a win to get one step closer to putting this thing away. So, let's take care of that, okay?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Nerves of Steel
Apparently there was a video game called "Nerves of Steel" once. Who knew?
Dateline – Saturday June 6th, 10:30 AM. Rich Trach and I had just completed our demolition of our opponents at #2 doubles (okay, demolition is a little strong. Sound defeat, perhaps?). Guy Van Alstine and Dennis McKernan had fallen at #1 doubles to a strong team. On the two remaining West Chester East courts, GV was down one set to none at #2 singles and #3 doubles. And God only knows what was going on across town where Brett Siegfried was battling Jakub Avramov at #1 singles. As I left the courts with my wife and son to meet a friend for lunch, I couldn’t help thinking that we were in danger of letting Easy Killer back into this season if things didn’t turn around…
What a silly concern! With a teamful of USTA League Tennis veterans like the Great Valley squad boasts this year, nothing is ever over until we say it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Dave U. put his infamous slow motion tennis/jedi mind tricks into action and rebounded to win his 2nd singles match in 3 sets, and Tom Mead grabbed Capt. Kenny by the scruff of the neck and willed 3rd doubles to a 3 set victory as well. Along with Brett Siegfried’s straight set victory and Rich and my win at 2nd doubles, GV put up another 4-1 win and maintained our 2 match lead over Easy Killer.
I didn’t watch enough of the other matches to add a whole lot more of my pithy commentary. I do want to thank my 16-month old son Aaron for trying to replicate the feel of a home Davis Cup match at the West Chester courts. Whenever our opponents would toe the line to serve on my son’s side of the court, he would start banging his hand on the metal risers as a distraction. Well played, boy!
#1 Singles – Brett Siegfried (7-0 singles) d. Jakub Avramov (0-2 singles), 6-3, 7-5
#2 Singles – Dave Umbach (2-0 singles) d. Michael Weidinger (2-2 singles, 3-0 doubles), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
#1 Doubles – Van Alstine (0-2 doubles)/McKernan (0-1 doubles) v. Ortega (2-0 doubles)/Hebenton (4-1 doubles), 2-6, 4-6
#2 Doubles – Heck (1-0 singles, 5-0 doubles)/Trach (5-0 doubles) d. Stevens (1-1 doubles)/Dharmaraj (1-1 doubles), 6-4, 6-3
#3 Doubles – Mead (3-0 doubles)/Werkiser (2-0 doubles) d. Francis (2-2 doubles)/Patitucci (1-3 doubles), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Notable: Brett just keeps on rolling. 1 lost set in 7 matches this season. Wow. Tom Mead continues his undefeated run in his rookie season with GV, this time carrying Kenny to a 3-set victory. Rich Trach and I played better this week, though my service problems continue. We kept points much shorter and poached effectively. Apparently our opponent Karthekeyan Dharmaraj is a 3.5 – he was a pretty solid player with a strong serve. He has to be a tremendous asset to his 3.5 team.
That’s about it for this week. GV faces Healthplex at the Healthplex sauna this week. I’ll be in the Poconos, 3 beers in by the time you guys take the courts. If conditions are similar to last year, drink lots of fluids. I think I lost about 10 pounds of water weight that day. Didn’t help that I choked away the 2nd set tiebreak and had to play 3…
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The Cavalry Arrives!
"I pity the Fools!"
As strong as the season has started for the Great Valley 4.0 squad, there's been something missing. The tennis has been excellent, the comraderie quite good...what has it been? Oh yeah, now I remember. The warpaint! Our favorite bandana-ed, warpainted team member has re-emerged from his Florida winter hideout to help us in our push towards Princeton and beyond, and he made an impact in his first match back on Saturday morning.
Phoenixville High School was the setting, on another beautiful Saturday morning for tennis. Scattered clouds, high 70's, little humidity. Can we dial that up for the rest of the season? Great Valley brought a strong lineup to face the Drunken Fools, who sent out a formidable lineup of their own. Let's go to the match-by-match review.
#1 Singles - Brett Siegfried (5-0, singles) d. Shawn Minnier (4-4, singles), 6-4, 7-5
Brett Siegfried is, quite frankly, on a roll. We'll disregard any Thursday night tune-up matches and just pay attention to his spotless USTA record - our singles anchor has only dropped 1 set in 5 matches this year, including one CPD match. He faced Shawn Minnier, who gave Great Valley fits last year (he was 9-1 in singles last year in PATD 4.0 action!) but has struggled this year. Shawn struggled versus yours truly in Week 1, but has done a nice job in Delaware action this year, with a 3-1 record down south. Anyway, this looked like a very competitive match from our court. Shawn was hitting crisp groundstrokes, but you just can't outlast Brett right now. Ultimately Shawn just didn't have enough, and Brett pulled out yet another victory. By the way (and I hope the USTA computers aren't reading this), Brett is 19-3 in his last 22 USTA singles matches, including playoffs last year (Districts, Sectionals AND Nationals). Pretty darned impressive.
#2 Singles - Dave Umbach (1-0, singles) d. Jeffrey Horwitz (0-3, singles), 7-5, 6-3
As I alluded to in the intro, the warpaint is back! Dave made is back in time for practice on Wednesday night, where it was determined that he was not exactly ready to resume doubles play with 2008 partner Rich Trach. Actually, looking back at their 2008 results, Dave and Rich had a fascinating run. 0-1 in the regular season (a 3-set loss to the Chambermaids and Hos), they went 7-0 in the playoffs between Districts and Sectionals. But the fascinating part is that 5 of those matches went to the 10-point 3rd set tiebreak, and Dave and Rich won all 5. Dave also managed a 4-0 singles record last year, including a match against his 5/30 opponent Jeff Horwitz. So when Jeff jumped to a 5-2, 40-Love lead in the first set, he had to know that Dave had him just where he wanted him. Sure enough, Mr. Umbach pulled out the first set despite the early difficulties, and cruised the rest of the way to a comfortable straight set victory. Dave's return gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility going forward, hopefully deep into the playoffs.
#1 Doubles - Heck (1-0, singles, 4-0, doubles)/Trach (4-0, doubles) d. Cooper (2-1, doubles)/Ruhl (3-1, doubles), 7-5, 5-7, 6-4
My third straight match with Rich Trach saw our first real bit of adversity as we dropped the second set before closing out the match against two tough opponents. I couldn't look at Lonnie Cooper without thinking of "Bruiser" from Ocean's Eleven. Not sure if anyone will get that reference, but that's not really my problem. Anyway, Rich and I played a fairly uneven match, mostly because of my service problems and our inability to put balls away. We had some fabulous net points, and it really was a fun doubles match to be a part of. That said, I know that I personally have to do a better job of ending points quicker, because we kept them in a lot of points that should have been over early. As Russell mentioned in his blog last week, Rich is a fantastic singles player who has made a seamless transition to doubles. It's great for our team to have so much versatility between singles and doubles.
#2 Doubles - Schmidt (2-1 singles, 1-0 doubles)/Mackenthun (5-0 doubles) d. Potts (1-0 singles, 1-1 doubles)/Flemming (1-3 doubles), 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming! Holger Mackenthun, who's played with everyone but Bobby Riggs this year, found himself with a new partner and countryman to face the Drunken Fools' young combo of Potts & Flemming in this barnburner of a match. Michael Schmidt was bumped down to 2nd dubs because of Dave Umbach's return (giving us tremendous depth), and the Germans found themselves face-to-face with two kids whose combined ages were probably less than the average age of a player on our team! This was a back-and-forth affair, much fist-pumping from the young Fools duo, much solid tennis from our boys. In the end, the veterans got it done, holding on for a 3-set victory. Holger has now had 4 different partners in 5 weeks...and is yet to drop a match. He even carried Kenny to a victory! Many candidates for team MVP this year - Holger has to be high on the list.
#3 Doubles - Gionta (1-1 doubles)/Cantu (0-2 doubles) v. Pattinson (2-2 doubles)/Dixon (1-2 doubles), 6-7, 3-6
Two of our ailing warriors, "Wey Cool" Gionta and "Hammer" Cantu fell in a hard-fought match with their Drunken Fools counterparts in the final match of the day. Gionta and Cantu couldn't recover from dropping the 1st set tiebreak, as both are rounding back into match condition after injuries have slowed their 2009 campaigns. Getting on the court is the best medicine, and both players expect a strong second half to prepare for the playoffs.
So there we are. 5-0, two game lead over both Easy Killer (who scraped by Kinetix 3-2 this weekend) and the West Chester Aces (5-0 victors over doormat Healthplex). Our "magic number" is technically 4, but we can put an absolute choke hold on the subflight with a victory this weekend against the West Chester Aces, the only squad we haven't faced. The Aces beat Easy Killer early in the season, but have since lost to the Fools and Kinetix, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Let's bring our "A" games, just in case.
By the way, the link to Russell's blog is now on the right side above the link the USTA standings, for those interested in keeping track of our chief rivals. Enjoy!
-g
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Great Wide Open
Mission accomplished. Don't get me wrong - there's still plenty of tennis left. But we find ourselves in rare air here, after our victory over Easy Killer on a picturesque Memorial Day weekend. I think you'll be hard pressed to find another sub-flight where the leaders have a 2 match lead in the loss column over the entire field this early in the season. Our win and the West Chester Aces' loss to Kinetix leaves 4 teams at 2 losses, fighting for second place. Unfortunately for them, the PATD Men's 4.0 Red Subflight is a lot like Top Gun - no points for second-best.
At first singles, EK's Cahn Ho (a true USTA league tennis veteran) out-grunted and outlasted Michael Schmidt 6-4, 6-4. Hey, someone tell Mike that he doesn't need to worry about his rating getting bumped since he's going back to Germany at the end of the Summer! Seriously, looked like a fierce match from where I was, Cahn is such a tough out.
Second singles featured Brett "Giant Killer" Siegfried against EK's...well...giant, the young Tom McAvoy. Hammer and I played Tom and a partner in dubs last year, lost badly in the first set before coming back to dominate the rest of the match. Flash forward to last Saturday, where Brett lost badly in the first set (Tom's huge serve can take some getting used to) before coming back to dominate the rest of the match, final of 1-6, 6-0, 6-2. If I recall, Tom's kind of a one-trick pony, and once Brett was able to turn the momentum, he never gave it back. Huge win for Brett and turned out to be the deciding court.
First doubles paired EK's Ron Rubenstein and Russell "Chambermaid" Chamberlin against myself and Rich Trach. Rich and I played together for the second consecutive week, and had all of our weapons firing...until we led 6-2, 5-2 and dropped the next 4 games. Whoops. We rallied to break Russell's serve and force the tiebreak, which we pulled out 7-5. Aside from that 10 minute lapse, I felt that Rich and I played a strong match and we certainly made an impression on Russell based on his blog entry (which you can read for yourself - modesty prevents me from posting here!)
Second doubles featured a dominant performance by peace-loving German Holger Mackenthun and new favorite partner Tom Mead, rolling their EK opponents 6-4, 6-2 in a match that was never in doubt. Even though these guys were right next to us, I didn't catch much of their match as I was admittedly watching Brett's match during our downtime. Tom and Holger have had two very impressive performances thus far, and we need them to keep that going. And Holger - they might have been "nice guys", but they would have stepped on our throats for a win in this match...don't forget that!
At third doubles, Jim Dare and Tom "Hammer" Cantu fell 7-6, 6-3. This was Tommy's first appearance this year as he's knocking the rust off from an elbow injury. This match got a little heated in the late-going as one of the "Easy Killers" admonished Jim Dare for having the temerity to move his feet during an EK serve. Um, really? Not surprisingly, the EK player's mood improved after the win, but there might be a little bad blood leading into the next match. A little "chin music", anyone?
So, we got the job done. No letdowns now, as the Drunken Fools lie in wait to try to knock us down a peg on Saturday. Let's keep our feet on the throttle and clinch this thing as early as possible. No prisoners!
At first singles, EK's Cahn Ho (a true USTA league tennis veteran) out-grunted and outlasted Michael Schmidt 6-4, 6-4. Hey, someone tell Mike that he doesn't need to worry about his rating getting bumped since he's going back to Germany at the end of the Summer! Seriously, looked like a fierce match from where I was, Cahn is such a tough out.
Second singles featured Brett "Giant Killer" Siegfried against EK's...well...giant, the young Tom McAvoy. Hammer and I played Tom and a partner in dubs last year, lost badly in the first set before coming back to dominate the rest of the match. Flash forward to last Saturday, where Brett lost badly in the first set (Tom's huge serve can take some getting used to) before coming back to dominate the rest of the match, final of 1-6, 6-0, 6-2. If I recall, Tom's kind of a one-trick pony, and once Brett was able to turn the momentum, he never gave it back. Huge win for Brett and turned out to be the deciding court.
First doubles paired EK's Ron Rubenstein and Russell "Chambermaid" Chamberlin against myself and Rich Trach. Rich and I played together for the second consecutive week, and had all of our weapons firing...until we led 6-2, 5-2 and dropped the next 4 games. Whoops. We rallied to break Russell's serve and force the tiebreak, which we pulled out 7-5. Aside from that 10 minute lapse, I felt that Rich and I played a strong match and we certainly made an impression on Russell based on his blog entry (which you can read for yourself - modesty prevents me from posting here!)
Second doubles featured a dominant performance by peace-loving German Holger Mackenthun and new favorite partner Tom Mead, rolling their EK opponents 6-4, 6-2 in a match that was never in doubt. Even though these guys were right next to us, I didn't catch much of their match as I was admittedly watching Brett's match during our downtime. Tom and Holger have had two very impressive performances thus far, and we need them to keep that going. And Holger - they might have been "nice guys", but they would have stepped on our throats for a win in this match...don't forget that!
At third doubles, Jim Dare and Tom "Hammer" Cantu fell 7-6, 6-3. This was Tommy's first appearance this year as he's knocking the rust off from an elbow injury. This match got a little heated in the late-going as one of the "Easy Killers" admonished Jim Dare for having the temerity to move his feet during an EK serve. Um, really? Not surprisingly, the EK player's mood improved after the win, but there might be a little bad blood leading into the next match. A little "chin music", anyone?
So, we got the job done. No letdowns now, as the Drunken Fools lie in wait to try to knock us down a peg on Saturday. Let's keep our feet on the throttle and clinch this thing as early as possible. No prisoners!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Opportunity Knocks
So, fellas, here we are. Remember last season? We dropped the first week, and had to work like hell to make up the ground, careful not to even drop any extra courts because that could be the difference at the end of the season? Never any breathing room? Well, it worked out...we blitzed our way through the rest of the year undefeated, moved to districts by virtue of our superior court-by-court record, and the rest was history.
Well, we have ourselves a unique opportunity a mere 4 weeks into this season. Everyone around us has at least one loss already. After Easy Killer's shocking Week 3 loss to the West Chester Aces, the Aces went and got smoked by the Drunken Fools last week, who had already lost twice. Kinetix looked like a contender after beating the Fools in Week 3...but we exposed them as frauds last week. So despite my Week 4 declaration that the order of things had changed...it would appear that I spoke too soon.
Anyway, the bottom line is this: we defend our home court on Saturday morning and send Easy Killer to their second loss, and we have bought ourselves one helluva lot of breathing room. Our destiny would be completely in our hands, and Easy Killer would be effectively dismissed from the conversation.
That said, we must not take them lightly, despite Russel's "woe-is-me" e-mail from earlier in the week. Don't buy for a second that they won't be showing up with their "A" team, and a loss this weekend puts us right back to where we were last year - each week as a must-win. So let's take care of business - I pledge to show up at least 5 minutes early this week to show my dedication to putting away our closest rivals!
Well, we have ourselves a unique opportunity a mere 4 weeks into this season. Everyone around us has at least one loss already. After Easy Killer's shocking Week 3 loss to the West Chester Aces, the Aces went and got smoked by the Drunken Fools last week, who had already lost twice. Kinetix looked like a contender after beating the Fools in Week 3...but we exposed them as frauds last week. So despite my Week 4 declaration that the order of things had changed...it would appear that I spoke too soon.
Anyway, the bottom line is this: we defend our home court on Saturday morning and send Easy Killer to their second loss, and we have bought ourselves one helluva lot of breathing room. Our destiny would be completely in our hands, and Easy Killer would be effectively dismissed from the conversation.
That said, we must not take them lightly, despite Russel's "woe-is-me" e-mail from earlier in the week. Don't buy for a second that they won't be showing up with their "A" team, and a loss this weekend puts us right back to where we were last year - each week as a must-win. So let's take care of business - I pledge to show up at least 5 minutes early this week to show my dedication to putting away our closest rivals!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Chambermaids (aka Easy Killers) Getting Frustrated
Hey Guys,
First wanted to thank Greg for keeping up w/ the blog, hope everyone is reading it. Below is an e-mail from Russ Chamberlin (Capt if the Easy Killers) to me after I asked him how they lost to the WC Aces. Looks like there could be some decention amoung the ranks. We need everyone available this w/e for the Easy Killers so we can put the final nail in their coffin w/ a win this Sat. Maybe they should call themselves Easy to Kill instead (LOL).
Note From Russ:
Mike,
We lost because we haven't been practicing and as usual the majority of the team was unavilable. I freaked out on the team and this week we had 5 at practice and 7 available for our Healthplex match this weekend. The short answer is "congratulations GV on making Districts!"
Seriously, you have a great team and we don't. And, since we really aren't in the running this year, we do want to play 5/23. We actually have enough players for once this year for that weekend (and no not out best) and we already have a Durnken Fools match to make up so it's unrealistic to think I can get my guys out without it being a total nightmare.
So, we'll see you at 9am at GV.
Regards,
Russell
First wanted to thank Greg for keeping up w/ the blog, hope everyone is reading it. Below is an e-mail from Russ Chamberlin (Capt if the Easy Killers) to me after I asked him how they lost to the WC Aces. Looks like there could be some decention amoung the ranks. We need everyone available this w/e for the Easy Killers so we can put the final nail in their coffin w/ a win this Sat. Maybe they should call themselves Easy to Kill instead (LOL).
Note From Russ:
Mike,
We lost because we haven't been practicing and as usual the majority of the team was unavilable. I freaked out on the team and this week we had 5 at practice and 7 available for our Healthplex match this weekend. The short answer is "congratulations GV on making Districts!"
Seriously, you have a great team and we don't. And, since we really aren't in the running this year, we do want to play 5/23. We actually have enough players for once this year for that weekend (and no not out best) and we already have a Durnken Fools match to make up so it's unrealistic to think I can get my guys out without it being a total nightmare.
So, we'll see you at 9am at GV.
Regards,
Russell
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
New World Order
Once upon a time, there was an order to things. Last year, there were three haves in our PATD 4.0 Men's Subflight - Great Valley, the Chambermaids and Hos, and the Drunken Fools. The other three teams went oh-for-the season against the three haves, so we had six weeks of tuneups and 4 weeks that decided the regular season.
Those days are no more, my friends. As Capt. Mike alluded to in his weekend review e-mail, the subflight has been turned on its head after last week's results. Easy Killers (formerly the Chambermaids and Hos) falling to the West Chester Aces? The Drunken Fools dropping a 3-2 decision to Kinetix? What in God's name is going on here?
The upshot here is this - no more weeks off this year, aside from our other match with Healthplex, I suppose. Maybe next time they can get FOUR guys to show up. But I digress. We have back-to-back big matches against Kinetix and Easy Killer (though we'll see if the Memorial Day weekend match gets postponed, I'm hoping so). It's imperative that we stave off the other competition while working towards our matches with the West Chester Aces...last year showed that there can be very little room for error if we want to get back to the postseason.
Tuneup at GVHS tomorrow as always. Big one against Kinetix on Saturday. Let's remind everyone that this subflight goes through Great Valley.
Those days are no more, my friends. As Capt. Mike alluded to in his weekend review e-mail, the subflight has been turned on its head after last week's results. Easy Killers (formerly the Chambermaids and Hos) falling to the West Chester Aces? The Drunken Fools dropping a 3-2 decision to Kinetix? What in God's name is going on here?
The upshot here is this - no more weeks off this year, aside from our other match with Healthplex, I suppose. Maybe next time they can get FOUR guys to show up. But I digress. We have back-to-back big matches against Kinetix and Easy Killer (though we'll see if the Memorial Day weekend match gets postponed, I'm hoping so). It's imperative that we stave off the other competition while working towards our matches with the West Chester Aces...last year showed that there can be very little room for error if we want to get back to the postseason.
Tuneup at GVHS tomorrow as always. Big one against Kinetix on Saturday. Let's remind everyone that this subflight goes through Great Valley.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Week 3 - Death Wish?
Healthplex has chosen to play us at Great Valley. Don't they realize that we've won our last 6 matches at home? (Practically 7, I mean we have a 2-1 lead in the first set on Court 1 against the WC Aces...might as well chalk that one up too!) The big question is, will the weather improve in time? Here's what I'm seeing for Saturday...
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers or thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 70s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
I don't know. The nationwide doppler radar shows patches of green all over the map. I have a bad feeling that we may be looking at another washout...but I'm going to limit myself to 6 beers tomorrow night just in case! :-)
-g
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers or thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 70s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
I don't know. The nationwide doppler radar shows patches of green all over the map. I have a bad feeling that we may be looking at another washout...but I'm going to limit myself to 6 beers tomorrow night just in case! :-)
-g
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Rain Out Match Info from the May 2nd Match from the infamous Sally Baird:
From: Mike Gionta [mailto:M102G@Comcast.net] Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 2:02 PMTo: Baird, SallyCc: Ken Werkiser; Al OrtegaSubject: Match Rain Out QuestionHi Sally,Mike Gionta here. Have a line up question on a rain-out match this past w/e. We attempted to play our match against the WC Aces on Sat at 9 AM as scheduled. Both teams showed up, we exchanged line ups, and tried to get the courts dry enough to play. One court had started playing and were on serve at 2-1 and the other courts had started warming up when it started to rain again so we were forced to cancel the match.The question is since we exchanged line ups do we have to keep the same guys for the make up match and at the same positions or do we just start over like a new match?
Sally's Response:
The guys who started their court have to finish that court.
Since none of the other courts started, you can change all of the
people.
Sally Baird
Director of Adult Competition
USTA Middle States Section
1288 Valley Forge Road
P. O. Box 987, Suite 74
Valley Forge, PA 19482
610-935-5000, ext. 227
610-935-5484 (FAX)
From: Mike Gionta [mailto:M102G@Comcast.net] Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 2:02 PMTo: Baird, SallyCc: Ken Werkiser; Al OrtegaSubject: Match Rain Out QuestionHi Sally,Mike Gionta here. Have a line up question on a rain-out match this past w/e. We attempted to play our match against the WC Aces on Sat at 9 AM as scheduled. Both teams showed up, we exchanged line ups, and tried to get the courts dry enough to play. One court had started playing and were on serve at 2-1 and the other courts had started warming up when it started to rain again so we were forced to cancel the match.The question is since we exchanged line ups do we have to keep the same guys for the make up match and at the same positions or do we just start over like a new match?
Sally's Response:
The guys who started their court have to finish that court.
Since none of the other courts started, you can change all of the
people.
Sally Baird
Director of Adult Competition
USTA Middle States Section
1288 Valley Forge Road
P. O. Box 987, Suite 74
Valley Forge, PA 19482
610-935-5000, ext. 227
610-935-5484 (FAX)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Week 2 VS WC Aces
Capt Mike here. Against my better judgement I followed the WC Aces Capt's advice and we had our team show up. Jack L. was the star of the day w/ his little leaf blower, he puffed and puffed and puffed until all 5 courts were almost dry. But soon after, it started to rain and the match was cancelled. Good news, Brett had started and was up 2-1. everyone else was in warm-up mode and down came the rain.
Practice will be Wed 5-5:30 depending on the weather.
Hope to see everyone than.
Capt Mike
Practice will be Wed 5-5:30 depending on the weather.
Hope to see everyone than.
Capt Mike
Friday, May 1, 2009
Week 2
9 AM, GVHS vs. the 1-0 West Chester Aces.
I won't be there - I look forward to everyone's updates on the action...if there is any action. Weather report is still looking bleak.
Go get 'em, boys!
I won't be there - I look forward to everyone's updates on the action...if there is any action. Weather report is still looking bleak.
Go get 'em, boys!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Start me up!
The Great Valley Men's 4.0 team came into the 2009 season wearing a bullseye as the defending Philadelphia District champs, and opened with a challenging first match with the Drunken Fools, 3rd place team in the flight last season with losses only to Great Valley and the Chambermaids and Hos. Would the Great Valley squad be able to defend its home turf and get off to a better start than their opening loss in 2008?
Well, that was a resounding yes. Great Valley triumphed on 4 of the 5 courts, setting up an early 3-way tie at the top of the PATD Red Division.
#1 Singles - Greg Heck d. Shawn Minnier; 6-1, 6-3
After a week of warnings from Cpt. Gionta about some unstoppable 21-year old who played at Phoenixville High School...I drew Shawn Minnier, who played singles for both matches vs. Great Valley last year and won both, including a drubbing of yours truly in the last match of the season. Having remembered killing myself in that particular match, I pledged to play within myself and not give the match away...and Shawn did his best to cooperate. As I got off to a strong start, Shawn self-destructed a bit and this match snowballed into a rout.
#2 Singles - Brett Siegfried d. Jeffrey Horwitz; 6-4, 6-4
In a rematch of the first Drunken Fools match from last year, the result was the same. I didn't get to see much of this match, but Brett appeared to be at his methodical best in the points that I caught, moving Horwitz around until a gaping part of the court was open for the kill. A big win by Brett.
#1 Doubles - Jim Dare/Guy Van Alstine vs. Lonnie Cooper/Michael Ruhl; 3-6, 3-6
I didn't see any of this match. Perhaps Jim or Guy can provide some input. It wouldn't be like us to win 5-0 though... :-)
#2 Doubles - Mike Gionta/Rich Trach d. Joseph Dixon/Wanzell Fleming; 6-1, 2-6, 6-2
Surprise! It was Capt. Mike and Rich who drew the unstoppable 21-year old. Ha ha! Mike and Rich clearly confounded the opponents with their quick hands en route to dominating the first set - the points I saw, every time our guys took the net, the point was theirs. In the second set, their opponents became the Lobster Twins, realizing that Capt. Mike has a slight weakness in that part of his game. Clearly Mike and Rich made the necessary adjustments to take the third set and turn the tide of the overall match.
#3 Doubles - Holger Mackenthun/Ken Werkiser d. Kevin Pattinson/Richard Martin; 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
Much like the #2 doubles match, we have 3 lopsided sets, back and forth and back again. I assume the opponents made some second set adjustments, but you can't pull that off against the wise old owls and expect to come back from a set down! Holger and Ken clearly shut the door - way to go, boys!
Supposedly, practice Wednesday at GVHS. But, as usual, the weather is not looking too good. For that matter, weather isn't looking too good for Saturday either. Keep your eyes on the Doppler Radar, and I'm sure Capt. Mike will be in touch by e-mail since nobody reads the blog yet!
Well, that was a resounding yes. Great Valley triumphed on 4 of the 5 courts, setting up an early 3-way tie at the top of the PATD Red Division.
#1 Singles - Greg Heck d. Shawn Minnier; 6-1, 6-3
After a week of warnings from Cpt. Gionta about some unstoppable 21-year old who played at Phoenixville High School...I drew Shawn Minnier, who played singles for both matches vs. Great Valley last year and won both, including a drubbing of yours truly in the last match of the season. Having remembered killing myself in that particular match, I pledged to play within myself and not give the match away...and Shawn did his best to cooperate. As I got off to a strong start, Shawn self-destructed a bit and this match snowballed into a rout.
#2 Singles - Brett Siegfried d. Jeffrey Horwitz; 6-4, 6-4
In a rematch of the first Drunken Fools match from last year, the result was the same. I didn't get to see much of this match, but Brett appeared to be at his methodical best in the points that I caught, moving Horwitz around until a gaping part of the court was open for the kill. A big win by Brett.
#1 Doubles - Jim Dare/Guy Van Alstine vs. Lonnie Cooper/Michael Ruhl; 3-6, 3-6
I didn't see any of this match. Perhaps Jim or Guy can provide some input. It wouldn't be like us to win 5-0 though... :-)
#2 Doubles - Mike Gionta/Rich Trach d. Joseph Dixon/Wanzell Fleming; 6-1, 2-6, 6-2
Surprise! It was Capt. Mike and Rich who drew the unstoppable 21-year old. Ha ha! Mike and Rich clearly confounded the opponents with their quick hands en route to dominating the first set - the points I saw, every time our guys took the net, the point was theirs. In the second set, their opponents became the Lobster Twins, realizing that Capt. Mike has a slight weakness in that part of his game. Clearly Mike and Rich made the necessary adjustments to take the third set and turn the tide of the overall match.
#3 Doubles - Holger Mackenthun/Ken Werkiser d. Kevin Pattinson/Richard Martin; 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
Much like the #2 doubles match, we have 3 lopsided sets, back and forth and back again. I assume the opponents made some second set adjustments, but you can't pull that off against the wise old owls and expect to come back from a set down! Holger and Ken clearly shut the door - way to go, boys!
Supposedly, practice Wednesday at GVHS. But, as usual, the weather is not looking too good. For that matter, weather isn't looking too good for Saturday either. Keep your eyes on the Doppler Radar, and I'm sure Capt. Mike will be in touch by e-mail since nobody reads the blog yet!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Practice?!?!
Saturday morning, 9:30AM. Site to be determined, due to high school districts at our home courts. And unlike the past several weekends, here's the weather forecast for Saturday:
Saturday
Sunny. Highs around 70. West winds 10 to 15 mph.
Now there's a change of pace.
Once a practice site is determined, we'll update the blog. For all of those paying attention.
Saturday
Sunny. Highs around 70. West winds 10 to 15 mph.
Now there's a change of pace.
Once a practice site is determined, we'll update the blog. For all of those paying attention.
Welcome to the Blog
Well gentlemen, here it is. At the request of our esteemed captain (actually, I requested it of him, and he outsourced it...to me), I'm giving you our Great Valley 4.0 Men's team tennis blog. Please, please, hold the applause.
I have some fun things planned for this, if I find the time. Most of which will come at Gionta's expense. Also, hopefully you'll be able to come here for match summaries, practice schedules, and all else Great Valley tennis.
If there's anything you'd like to see, let me know. You're request will be filed in the appropriate section of my office.
-g
I have some fun things planned for this, if I find the time. Most of which will come at Gionta's expense. Also, hopefully you'll be able to come here for match summaries, practice schedules, and all else Great Valley tennis.
If there's anything you'd like to see, let me know. You're request will be filed in the appropriate section of my office.
-g
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